Make-A-Wish catches student off guard

Vista Murrieta Student Jonathan Ostrand hugs one of his teachers, Ashley Harper, before getting into a limousine that will take him to The Promenade mall in Temecula for a shopping spree. The shopping spree was courtesy of The Make A Wish Foundation.
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Vista Murrieta Student Jonathan Ostrand hugs one of his teachers, Ashley Harper, before getting into a limousine that will take him to The Promenade mall in Temecula for a shopping spree. The shopping spree was courtesy of The Make A Wish Foundation.

When the senior at Vista Murrieta High School was pulled out of class Friday morning, he assumed the worst. And Chad MacDonald -- a member of the campus security staff dispatched to remove Ostrand from class -- didn't do anything to counter that interpretation.

I was scared because he walked in, and he looked kind of mad," Jonathan said. "So I was like, 'Oh, I'm in so much trouble.' It wasn't even funny."

Actually, Jonathan wasn't in trouble at all. Quite the opposite. He had been chosen as a Make-A-Wish recipient, and the 17-year-old with a genetic heart condition who wears an implant, was heading for a $2,500 shopping spree at The Promenade mall in Temecula.

MacDonald said he just played it straight.

"Actually, I left it more to his imagination than anything else," MacDonald said. "Because I just said, 'You need to come with me.'"

When Jonathan crossed the threshold into classroom EE-22, to be greeted by applause from classmates and family members, and a big sign from the Make-A-Wish of Orange County and the Inland Empire, a slow smile crept over his face.

"I thought I was in huge trouble," a relieved Jonathan said.

Bridget Ostrand, his grandmother, said the family has been dealing with a series of hardships. In fact, Ostrand's parents, Jeremy and Stephanie, could not be at Friday's event. They are in Colorado with the youngest of their three children, Jessica, 9, who needs a heart transplant. Ostrand's brother, Joseph, 15, went on Jonathan's limousine-transported shopping spree.

"This family has struggled immensely and they are just hard-knock survivors," Bridget Ostrand said.

Bridget Ostrand said that Jonathan collapsed in school and almost died in October 2010. That is when he received his implant, an AICD or Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. Shortly after that, the family came to live in Murrieta with the childrens' grandparents.

"We brought the entire family out, because it was too much," Bridget Ostrand said.

The implant helps control Jonathan's heart, which is prone to beating irregularly.

Since coming to Vista Murrieta High School, Jonathan has worked with education specialist Ashley Harper.

"He's just made remarkable progress, health-wise and academically, since becoming a student here at Vista Murrieta," Harper said. "So it's been a pleasure to have him on my caseload and watch him grow, in these few, short, couple of years, and blossom into a student who I feel is ready for the next challenges that his life will bring."

Harper said that Jonathan aspires to attend community college and go into special education.

The first stop for the limousine was going to be the Apple Store.

"I was going to get a computer," Jonathan said. "I need one of those for school and stuff."

Dina Durant, the wish granter from Make A Wish, said the agency initially arranged for a trip to Europe for Jonathan. That had been his original request, inspired by an elementary school teacher, she said. But when the health emergency involving his sister came up, and his parents had to travel to Colorado with her, Jonathan settled on the shopping spree as an alternative.

Because of Jonathan's heart condition, fatigue is an issue. But classmate Matthew Quemada, who said he is Jonathan's "brother from another mother," said his slender friend's appearance can be deceiving.

Quemada said Jonathan will, out of the blue, just challenge him to a race during lunch, and then take off.

"I mean, he may look like he doesn't have that much muscle," Quemada said. "But, when he wants to get going, he gets going. He's just ready to go, all the time."